System and method for generating media bookmarks

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable media for transmedia video bookmarks, the method comprising receiving a first place marker and a second place marker for a segment of video media, extracting metadata from the video media between the first and second place markers, normalizing the extracted metadata, storing the normalized metadata, first place marker, and second place marker as a video bookmark, and retrieving the media represented by the video bookmark upon request from a user. Systems can aggregate video bookmarks from multiple sources and refine the first place marker and second place marker based on the aggregated video bookmarks. Metadata can be extracted by analyzing text or audio annotations. Metadata can be normalized by generating a video thumbnail representing the video media between the first place marker and the second place marker. Multiple video bookmarks may be searchable by metadata or by the video thumbnail visually.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/099,267, filed Apr. 14, 2016, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/737,683, filed Jun. 12, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No.9,342,596, issued May 17, 2016 which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/181,963, filed Feb. 17, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No.9,058,386, issued Jun. 16, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/284,159, filed Oct. 28, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No.8,655,879, issued Feb. 18, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/192,732, filed Aug. 15, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No.8,051,081, issued Nov. 1, 2011. The contents of the foregoing are herebyincorporated by reference into this application as if set forth hereinin full.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates to media playback and more specifically tovideo bookmarks to aid in pausing and resuming video playback.

INTRODUCTION

Video consumption has traditionally been a very passive activity. In thebeginning era of video, viewers watched a movie when the theater decidedto show it. Later, the invention of television allowed viewers to watcha television program in the comfort of their home, but viewers werestill forced to watch programs as they were broadcast. With the adventof video cassette tape technology such as Betamax or VHS, viewers wereable to record and watch video content on demand, but tethered tolocations that included bulky video cassette players and viewers weretied to physical removable media. Recent years have seen rapid changes.Video content is now available on many devices, portable and otherwise.Video content can be stored on removable media, such as DVD or USB flashdrives, or on internal storage, such as a hard drive or flash memory inan iPod, or streamed via a network, such as to a computer or cellularphone. Video content is available and portable nearly anywhere in someform or another. TiVO and other digital video recorders allow viewers toautomatically record broadcasts and even pause live television.

With all the progress made in distributing and presenting video contenton individual devices, little progress has been made to free contentwhich is limited to a particular device or format and provide continuousplayback across devices and formats. Accordingly, what is needed in theart is a way for users to mark and shift video content from device todevice freely and easily.

SUMMARY

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained bymeans of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out inthe appended claims. These and other features of the present inventionwill become more fully apparent from the following description andappended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention asset forth herein.

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable media forgenerating video bookmarks, the method comprising receiving a firstplace marker and a second place marker for a segment of video media,extracting metadata from the video media between the first and secondplace markers, normalizing the extracted metadata, storing thenormalized metadata, first place marker, and second place marker as avideo bookmark, and retrieving the media represented by the videobookmark upon request from a user. One aspect further aggregates videobookmarks from multiple sources and refines the first place marker andsecond place marker based on the aggregated video bookmarks. Metadatacan be extracted by analyzing text or audio annotations. Another aspectof normalizing the extracted metadata includes generating a videothumbnail representing the video media between the first place markerand the second place marker. Multiple video bookmarks may be searchableby metadata or by the video thumbnail visually. In one aspect a userprofile stores video bookmarks on a per media and per user basis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the invention briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only exemplary embodiments of the invention and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a sample method embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates sample system embodiment for generating videobookmarks;

FIG. 4 illustrates a sample remote control device for use with a samplesystem;

FIG. 5a illustrates a sample user interface for visual browsing of videobookmarks;

FIG. 5b illustrates a sample user interface for visual browsing of videobookmarks where a user views additional information; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a system to normalize place markers from aggregatedvideo bookmarks.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system includes a general-purposecomputing device 100, including a processing unit (CPU) 120 and a systembus 110 that couples various system components including the systemmemory such as read only memory (ROM) 140 and random access memory (RAM)150 to the processing unit 120. Other system memory 130 may be availablefor use as well. It can be appreciated that the invention may operate ona computing device with more than one CPU 120 or on a group or clusterof computing devices networked together to provide greater processingcapability. The system bus 110 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Abasic input/output (BIOS) stored in ROM 140 or the like, may provide thebasic routine that helps to transfer information between elements withinthe computing device 100, such as during start-up. The computing device100 further includes storage devices such as a hard disk drive 160, amagnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, tape drive or the like. Thestorage device 160 is connected to the system bus 110 by a driveinterface. The drives and the associated computer readable media providenonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules and other data for the computing device 100. In oneaspect, a hardware module that performs a particular function includesthe software component stored in a tangible computer-readable medium inconnection with the necessary hardware components, such as the CPU, bus,display, and so forth, to carry out the function. The basic componentsare known to those of skill in the art and appropriate variations arecontemplated depending on the type of device, such as whether the deviceis a small, handheld computing device, a desktop computer, or a computerserver.

Although the exemplary environment described herein employs the harddisk, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that othertypes of computer readable media which can store data that areaccessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memorycards, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories(RAMs), read only memory (ROM), a cable or wireless signal containing abit stream and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operatingenvironment.

To enable user interaction with the computing device 100, an inputdevice 190 represents any number of input mechanisms, such as amicrophone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphicalinput, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. The input maybe used by the presenter to indicate the beginning of a speech searchquery. The device output 170 can also be one or more of a number ofoutput mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances,multimodal systems enable a user to provide multiple types of input tocommunicate with the computing device 100. The communications interface180 generally governs and manages the user input and system output.There is no restriction on the invention operating on any particularhardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily besubstituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they aredeveloped.

For clarity of explanation, the illustrative system embodiment ispresented as comprising individual functional blocks (includingfunctional blocks labeled as a “processor”). The functions these blocksrepresent may be provided through the use of either shared or dedicatedhardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capable of executingsoftware. For example the functions of one or more processors presentedin FIG. 1 may be provided by a single shared processor or multipleprocessors. (Use of the term “processor” should not be construed torefer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software.)Illustrative embodiments may comprise microprocessor and/or digitalsignal processor (DSP) hardware, read-only memory (ROM) for storingsoftware performing the operations discussed below, and random accessmemory (RAM) for storing results. Very large scale integration (VLSI)hardware embodiments, as well as custom VLSI circuitry in combinationwith a general purpose DSP circuit, may also be provided.

The logical operations of the various embodiments are implemented as:(1) a sequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or proceduresrunning on a programmable circuit within a general use computer, (2) asequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or proceduresrunning on a specific-use programmable circuit; and/or (3)interconnected machine modules or program engines within theprogrammable circuits.

FIG. 2 illustrates a sample method embodiment. One application of thismethod is to mark favorite parts of video clips as video bookmarks. Oneway to indicate a favorite part is to demarcate the start point and endpoint of the favorite part of the video relative to some other positionin the video, such as the absolute beginning or ending of the videoclip. The first step in the method includes receiving a first placemarker and a second place marker for a segment of video media (202). Thefirst place marker and the second place marker may mark the samelocation, which would effectively generate a video clip of a stillpicture. This aspect works conceptually because videos are composed of aseries of still pictures played in succession, making a still picture asubset of a video. In one implementation of the method, a user watches atelevision show and clicks a button on a remote control which sends asignal to a receiving device indicating the beginning of a clip shelikes. The user later clicks the same or another button indicating theend of the clip. The first place marker is the beginning of the clip andthe second place marker is the end of the clip. The place markers may beautomatically modified to account for real life situations and real lifehuman response time. Human response time is not instantaneous. A delay,small or large, is introduced between the beginning of the clip and whenthe viewer actually clicks the button indicating the place mark. Anautomatic way to adjust the place marks is to account for a 2-5 seconddelay (or other variable amount of time) if the user is consistentlyslightly behind in making the first place mark. The place markers may bemanually edited to slide forward or backward if they are in an incorrectlocation. A blended automatic and manual system may rely on previouslydetected divisions or chapters in the video content and suggest a placemark based on where the user has marked and, for example, the nearestdivision or chapter. Another approach would be to suggest the nextearliest division or chapter from the user-indicated place mark ratherthan the nearest which could be after the portion the user intended tomark. As is discussed further, collaborative or aggregated place marksmay contribute to locating an intended location for a place mark.

The second step in the method includes extracting metadata from thevideo media between the first and second place markers (204). Extractedmetadata is not limited to data located only between the first andsecond place markers. Metadata includes state information about thecurrent playback device. For example, one piece of metadata is thevolume of the television set or the playback size of a MPEG video(actual size, 2.times., full screen, etc). Inasmuch as the markedportion is a sub-segment of a larger video segment, any metadatadescribing the larger video segment is considered metadata about thevideo media between the first and second place marks. For example, thefirst place marker is set at the beginning of Luke Skywalker's encounterwith Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and the secondplace marker is set just after Skywalker's hand is cut off Although thevideo content between the two place markers does not explicitly mentionor display the movie title, the director, the running length, or genre,etc. all such metadata may be included as describing the context of thevideo clip.

In one aspect, the exemplary system extracts metadata through analysisof speech, audio, alternate audio tracks (in the case of a DVD withdirector commentary, actor commentary, etc), sub-titles, availablecamera angles, individual frames, etc. Metadata may be extracted fromeach component of the source video clip in a different way. For example,speech can be converted to text by a speech recognition unit, individualframes can be analyzed to identify key objects or persons, and so forth.

In one aspect of the method, one or more users provide audio or textannotations which are analyzed to extract additional metadata.Especially in the context of home videos, videos taken with acameraphone and the like, this additional metadata can be criticalbecause other metadata is sparse and not very descriptive. Audioannotations may be retained in audio format and mixed over any audiocontained in the video clip, much like personalized director commentaryfor home made videos.

Once the metadata is extracted, the third step in the method includesnormalizing the extracted metadata (206). Metadata is normalized when itis molded to adhere to a uniform or standard format, such as MPEG-7 orMPEG-21. After metadata is normalized, playback becomes possible onmultiple devices, but may require further transcoding of the originalmedia to suit the target playback device. Dates are a prime example ofmetadata which occurs in multiple formats and requires normalization.Assume that a preferred normalized format for a date is 01-01-2000. Thenormalization process takes dates in other formats, such as Jan. 1,2000; 1/1/00; Saturday, January First, Two Thousand A.D.; andJan-1-2000; and adjusts them to match the chosen standard form.Uniformity and consistency allows for simplified searching and indexingof the metadata. The need for normalization is further heightened whendealing with metadata extracted from audio or text annotations providedby users. Individuals often use different roughly synonymous words todescribe things, and different regions have different jargon andvocabulary. For example, sandals are called many names in differentregions: sandal, thong, flip-flop, slipper, etc. When such a word isencountered, it is normalized to a predefined term. Other establishedmeanings of the word normalization also apply.

In one aspect, the system generates a video thumbnail representing thevideo media between the first place marker and the second place marker.A video thumbnail is a graphical shorthand representation of the videobetween the markers. The video thumbnail is a series of pointers toframes in the original content or the video thumbnail can be aseparately generated and stored, such as an animated GIF file, aQuickTime video, or an Adobe Flash file. A video thumbnail can be afixed length regardless of the length of the video between the first andsecond place marks. A video thumbnail can be a variable length, such assome fraction of the length of the video between the first and secondplace marks or the variable length may be determined by a number ofunique scenes in the video between the first and second marks. A videothumbnail can be full motion video of select portions of the video or itcan be one or more still frames from the video. Video thumbnails may ormay not include sound. In one aspect, a full motion video and a stillframe are included to account for playback devices that can and can notdisplay full motion video.

The fourth step in the method includes storing the normalized metadata,first place marker, and second place marker as a video bookmark (208).In one aspect video bookmarks are text searchable. For example, a cellphone stores multiple video bookmarks and the user searches them usingthe term “Christmas”. Traditional, known in the art text searchingtechniques may be applied to search through the metadata for each videoclip and retrieve the ones that match the search term. The systemretrieves video clips containing “Christmas” in the meta-data, as wellas video clips showing Santa Clause, decorated evergreen trees, reindeerand snow, etc. and video clips containing the spoken word “Christmas” or“December Twenty Fifth”. Wild cards, regular expressions, rootexpanders, etc. can be used to assist in text searching. The systemdisplays a list of video thumbnails visually to a user and animation, ifavailable, is played to show a user what is contained in each clip. Whenanimation is not present for a video bookmark, the system displays astill picture representing the clip contents. A visual display mayinclude a combination of scrolling metadata text and a visual displayfor each video bookmark to provide additional information for a user toselect a video bookmark for playback.

Video bookmarks may be stored in a central location, embedded within themedia itself, automatically saved on a device, saved as a separate filewhere a user instructs that the video bookmark be saved or distributedacross multiple devices, etc. When a video bookmark is stored acrossmultiple devices, each of the multiple devices may be determined aslikely to play back the video bookmark. Video bookmarks may be stored,copied, and transferred from device to device. In one embodiment, aseparate file is created to store a video bookmark per video per user.

The fifth step in the method is retrieving the media represented by thevideo bookmark upon request from a user (210). The media content can beembedded in a video bookmark as a standalone file or the video bookmarkmay contain links to another video source, such as a video file storedon a hard drive or a video file or video stream available through anetwork or through the Internet. Video bookmarks can be played back onany device independent of what device was used for original playback ormaking the first and second place markers. For example, a user sets avideo bookmark on the home television set, starts his or her dailycommute on the bus, and retrieves the video bookmark to resume playbackor view the video bookmark content on his or her Internet-enabledcellular phone or PDA as he or she is riding on the bus.

One aspect of invention further includes aggregating video bookmarksfrom multiple sources and refining the first place marker and secondplace marker based on the aggregated video bookmarks. For example, manyviewers watch a broadcast television show and multiple individuals markthe same or approximately the same portion as a portion of interest witha video bookmark, such as an especially funny part of a comedy. Each ofthe video bookmarks is transmitted to a central server which analyzesthe aggregated multiple first place markers and makes a determination asto where the “correct” or most likely intended first place marker is andadjusts the first place marker of each of the aggregated video bookmarksaccordingly. The same is done for the second place marker. Metadata inaggregated video bookmarks is updated in a similar fashion by addingmissing metadata in video bookmarks that is present in a majority oflike video bookmarks. Aggregated video bookmarks may be searchable fromthe central server or may be sent back to other devices for storage,searching, and retrieval.

In another aspect, a user profile is used to store video bookmarks on aper media and on a per user basis. For example, in a home media library,more than one user can be in various stages of watching the same movie.A video bookmark for Joe's session watching Movie #1 is stored in a waythat keeps it separate from Matt's session watching Movie #1. Similarly,Joe's session watching Movie #1 is kept separate from Joe's sessionwatching Movie #2. Multiple bookmarks may be stored per user per mediaas well. A user may mark several places within an individual movie filewith a video bookmark. Joe keeps bookmarks for his favorite funny partsof Movie #1 and keeps a separate bookmark for where he last stoppedplayback.

The method described and shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented in a liveopportunistic mode or as a service in batch mode. Live opportunisticmode processes video bookmarks, metadata, and annotations on the fly,whereas batch mode gathers or queues a group of projects and processeseach project at some later date. One example of batch mode allows a userto mark interesting portions of a movie, but abstains from interruptingthe movie to process them or asks the user to add an audio annotationafter the movie is over.

Video bookmarks may be generated automatically to provide a shortsynopsis to remind a user what transpired in a video presentation thathas been paused or stopped just before resuming playback. This aspectacts much like the short 1 or 2 minute episode recaps that are oftenshown right before the second half of a cliffhanger episode to remindviewers of what happened in the first half which was shown 3 monthsprior.

FIG. 3 illustrates a sample system or network-based embodiment. Clip 1302 is the video clip from which a video bookmark is being generated.The user sets the first marker 304 indicating the intended beginning ofthe video bookmark and sets a second marker 306 indicating the intendedending of the video bookmark. The user may indicate a still frame 308which the user feels is representative of the entire clip 1 302. Theserver also retrieves video content from clip 1 to generate a videothumbnail. The server 314 extracts metadata 310, including any useraudio or text annotations, and user profile 312 information. The firstmarker 304, second marker 306, and still frame 308 are sent to theserver 314 as well. The server normalized metadata with a metadatanormalizer 316 module. In one embodiment, the metadata normalizercontains a table of predefined formats. In another embodiment, themetadata normalized evolves and learns metadata formats on the fly basedon metadata from one or more users. The server then combines the firstmarker 304, the second marker 306, the still frame 308, the videothumbnail, user profile information, and normalized metadata into asingle file called the video bookmark 318. The server 314 can also add alink 320 to the original video clip in place of the original video clip302 to conserve bandwidth and/or storage space when distributing and/orstoring the video bookmark, however a link is primarily useful withonline playback devices. The video bookmark can be transmitted andstored on a playback device through a network 322 such as a homenetwork, a wireless network, the Internet, a corporate intranet, etc.The network is depicted in a representative location. All or some of thecomponents pictured may be located in or across a network. Componentsmay be divided and located partially locally and partially in a network.In the case of data storage, such as the metadata 310 and user profile312, duplicate storage which can be synchronized from time to time canbe located inside and/or outside the network.

The video bookmark is transferable between video formats and betweenplayback devices. In one aspect it serves as a universal indicator ofthe marked video segment regardless of the format, medium, playbacklocation, and playback device. In one aspect, the video bookmark isstored on a server for access by network-enabled playback devices. Thevideo bookmark can also be synced to an offline playback device. A usercan even attach the video bookmark to an email message for massdistribution. In one embodiment, a list of video bookmarks is stored ona playback device and functions much like a list of favorites orbookmarks in a web browser.

FIG. 4 illustrates a remote control device 400 for user interaction witha sample system. Such a remote control device may interact with atelevision set-top box, a personal digital video recorder, a personalcomputer, video game console, etc. It may even be integrated into amobile telephone. The front 402 a of the remote control has displays anduser interfaces. The back 402 b of the device has user interfaces, butno display. The display 404 is capable of showing text as it is enteredinto the remote or may be capable of displaying the video or stillframes as they are being marked. Common purpose buttons such as play406, pause 408, stop 410, and record 412 are featured to allow for easymanipulation of place markers within the video content. For example, auser may hit the record button 412 to signify the first marker and thestop button to signify the second marker. After the user has set twomarks, the user is prompted on the display 404 to enter a description ormetadata about the marked portion of video on the included keyboard 414.The user may manually alter the first and second markers usingnavigation buttons left 416 a and right 416 b.

On the back 402 b of the remote control, a fingerprint reader 418 may beintegrated to identify the user holding the remote control. Other useridentification mechanisms may be used in place of or in conjunction witha fingerprint reader, such as a username or password, a physical key, orother biometric identification. A transmitter 420 communicates with theset-top box, digital video recorder, computer, etc. wirelessly viaBluetooth, infrared, 802.11, WiMAX, wireless USB, etc. A combinationmicrophone and speaker 422 is used to gather audio annotations from auser about the marked video and to play them back to the user to verifythat they were recorded properly. This device is exemplary; the userinterface, location, shape, and size of buttons and displays,communication and output components, etc. should not be construed aslimiting.

FIG. 5a illustrates a sample user interface for visual browsing of videobookmarks. The display 502 is part of a computer, a portable device, aset-top box, etc. On the display are shown a list of video thumbnails504 representing a list of video bookmarks. The shown arrangement ofvideo thumbnails is only exemplary; other arrangements and layouts maybe used, including arrangements where video thumbnails move from placeto place on the display or overlap wholly or partially. The individualvideo thumbnails may be a mix of still frames, slide shows of individualstill frames, or full motion video clips. Directional buttons and aselection button 506 are shown as touchscreen buttons such as on a PDA,but the user interface for browsing items on the display may be hardwarebuttons, touchscreen, a combination, or any other suitable interface.When the user selects a video thumbnail for playback 508, the list ofvideo thumbnails is replaced with the video clip represented by theselected video thumbnail. After the video clip is played, the user maybe presented with options to provide additional audio or textannotations, replay the video clip, return to the list of videothumbnails, or the display may return automatically to the list of videothumbnails.

FIG. 5b illustrates a sample user interface for visual browsing of videobookmarks where a user views additional information. A user may select avideo thumbnail to display further information to determine if it is theclip the user wants to view. In that case, an overlaid display 510 maybe shown over the list of video thumbnails showing all or part of themetadata contained in the video bookmark.

Another sample application is a system that pushes video bookmarks to aphoto frame or other remote display. Grandparents could authorize theirphoto frame to accept from a network connection one or more feed ofvideo bookmarks driven by their children or grandchildren. Theauthorization may be limited to video bookmarks containing certainmetadata information or other tags. For example, the grandparents aboveselect that only video bookmarks with their grandchild's name, Tom, aredisplayed. The grandchild's video bookmark feed contains numerousunrelated bookmarks, only the bookmarks containing “Tom” in themetadata, file name, description, etc. are displayed. When thegrandparents see a video bookmark they like, they push a button or sendsome other user input to the photo frame or a remote control device andthe photo frame displays the video clip represented by the videobookmark. In a similar fashion, a screensaver on a computer or mobilephone could be composed of one or more video bookmarks.

FIG. 6 illustrates a system to normalize place markers from aggregatedvideo bookmarks. User 1 602, User 2 604, and User 3 606 all view clip 1608. User 1 sets a first mark 610 near the beginning of the video. User2 sets a first mark 612 near the beginning of the video. User 3 sets afirst mark 614 closer to the middle of the video. Similarly, User 1 setsa second mark 616 near the end of the video. User 2 sets a second mark618 near the end of the video. User 3 sets a second mark 620 not as nearthe end of the video. The marks set by User 1, User 2, and User 3 aresent to an aggregating server 622. The aggregating server is shown asbeing within a network cloud. The aggregating server may reside in oracross a network. The aggregating server may be composed of multipleservers which communicate with each other. YouTube is one potentialapplication where an aggregating server can be used. YouTube servesmillions of video clips each day, often serving the same clip to manyusers. YouTube, or a similar website, can be expanded to allow multipleusers to mark favorite portions of a clip 610, 616, 612, 618, 614, 620to YouTube, an aggregating server 622.

The aggregating server analyzes the marks sent from one or more users aswell as the clip to which the marks are applied. Based on the analysis,the aggregating server determines for clip 1 624 a most probable correctfirst mark 626 and second mark 628. In this case, because two out ofthree users had a first mark near the beginning, the aggregating serverdetermined that the most likely correct placement was near thebeginning. The same fundamental analysis is performed on the secondmark. In one aspect, an aggregating server receives marks from manyindividuals which apply to many videos. The aggregating server uses athreshold distance between multiple first and multiple second marks todetermine if they are intended to mark the same video segment. Forexample, one clip starts at time 1:30 and runs to time 5:15 whileanother clip starts at time 1:35 and runs to time 5:00. The clips varyby a few seconds in the beginning and end, but if they are within thethreshold, the aggregating server will consider them as containing thesame basic video content. A clip starting at time 7:30 and ending attime 15:00 and a clip starting at time 4:10 and ending at time 30:30 arenot within the threshold of similarity in this example and areconsidered as different video clips. The threshold may be setdynamically or statically, by a user or automatically. Clip 1 624 may bestored in the network or may be pushed by the aggregating server 622back out to individual users 602, 604, 606. While FIG. 6 showsinteractions with 3 users, thousands of users or more may submit videobookmarks for aggregation.

In situations with many users, an aggregating server may furtherrecognize a user's sets of interests through metadata contained insubmitted video bookmarks and suggest similar or potentially interestingvideo clips for a particular user.

Embodiments within the scope of the present invention may also includecomputer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executableinstructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readablemedia can be any available media that can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carryor store desired program code means in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computerproperly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, anysuch connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofthe computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of theinvention may be practiced in network computing environments with manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way ofillustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention.For example, the processes described herein may have application indigital video recorders, cable or broadcast television, video streams onthe Internet, or teaching materials like slides or lectures. Thoseskilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications andchanges that may be made to the present invention without following theexample embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein,and without departing from the true spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a processor; and acomputer-readable storage device that stores instructions which, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the processor to perform operationscomprising: receiving a first place marker and a second place marker,wherein the first place marker and the second place marker are bothassociated with a segment of media; extracting metadata from the segmentof media, wherein the metadata differs from video content containedwithin a video clip; generating, based on the metadata, normalizedmetadata for locating the segment of media; storing, in a memory device,the normalized metadata, the first place marker, and the second placemarker to yield stored data in the memory device, wherein the storeddata comprises the normalized metadata, the first place marker, and thesecond place marker stored in the memory device; and upon receiving arequest, retrieving the segment of the media using the stored data inthe memory device.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein storing thenormalized metadata, the first place marker, and the second place markercomprises storing the normalized metadata, the first place marker, andthe second place marker as a media bookmark.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein the computer-readable storage device stores additionalinstructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processorto perform operations further comprise: generating a video thumbnailrepresenting the media bookmark.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein thevideo thumbnail has a fixed length.
 5. The system of claim 3, whereinthe video thumbnail has a variable length.
 6. The system of claim 1,when generating the normalized metadata further comprises normalizingthe metadata for locating the segment of media regardless of a formattype or a playback device type.
 7. A method, comprising: receiving afirst place marker and a second place marker, wherein the first placemarker and the second place marker are both associated with a segment ofmedia; extracting, via a processor, metadata from the segment of media,wherein the metadata differs from a video clip; generating, via theprocessor and based on the metadata, normalized metadata for locatingthe segment of media; storing, in a memory device, the normalizedmetadata, the first place marker, and the second place marker to yieldstored data in the memory device, wherein the stored data comprises thenormalized metadata, the first place marker, and the second place markerstored in the memory device; and upon receiving a request, retrievingthe segment of the media using the stored data in the memory device. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein storing the normalized metadata, thefirst place marker, and the second place marker comprises storing thenormalized metadata, the first place marker, and the second place markeras a media bookmark.
 9. The method of claim 8, the method furthercomprising generating a video thumbnail representing the media bookmark.10. The method of claim 9, wherein the video thumbnail has a fixedlength.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the video thumbnail has avariable length.
 12. The method of claim 7, when generating thenormalized metadata further comprises normalizing the metadata forlocating the segment of media regardless of a format type or a playbackdevice type.
 13. A computer-readable storage device storing instructionswhich, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: receiving a first place marker and a second placemarker, wherein the first place marker and the second place marker areboth associated with a segment of media; extracting metadata from thesegment of media, wherein the metadata differs from a video clip;generating, based on the metadata, normalized metadata for locating thesegment of media; storing, in a memory device, the normalized metadata,the first place marker, and the second place marker to yield stored datain the memory device, wherein the stored data comprises the normalizedmetadata, the first place marker, and the second place marker stored inthe memory device; and upon receiving a request, retrieving the segmentof the media using the stored data in the memory device.
 14. Thecomputer-readable storage device of claim 13, wherein storing thenormalized metadata, the first place marker, and the second place markercomprises storing the normalized metadata, the first place marker, andthe second place marker as a media bookmark.
 15. The computer-readablestorage device of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable storage devicestores further instructions which, when executed by the processor, causethe processor to perform operations further comprise generating a videothumbnail representing the media bookmark.
 16. The computer-readablestorage device of claim 15, wherein the video thumbnail has a fixedlength.
 17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, whereinthe video thumbnail has a variable length.
 18. The computer-readablestorage device of claim 13, wherein generating the normalized metadatafurther comprises normalizing the metadata for locating the segment ofmedia regardless of a format type or a playback device type.